Tasmanian moth sailor Rob Gough bounced back from a disappointing third place finish at the 2012 International Moth world championship, taking the gold in convincing fashion on the final day of Sail Sydney 2012.

The victory starts Gough’s campaign to successfully defend his Australian championship in the spectacular foiler Moths on Lake Macquarie and then have a serious crack at winning the 2013 world championship in the Pacific trade winds off Hawaii.

In Italy earlier in the year New South Wales sailors Joshua McKnight and Scott Babbage finished first and second in the world championship, with Gough a close third overall.

In this weekend’s encounter on Sydney Harbour, Gough was always in command, winning three races and placing second and third twice to finish with a net 10 points after discarding one of his third places.

Another international campaign started at Sail Sydney, with Matt Bugg, like Gough a member of Hobart’s Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, winning four of the six races sailed in the International 2.4mR class.

Bugg, sailing for the first time since the London Paralympics, took out the series from the almost equally consistent Peter Russell from Canberra, who had two first places and never crossed the finish line worse than third.

This is the start of Bugg’s campaign to again represent Australia at the Paralympic Games in Rio in 2016.

If you want to link to this article then please use this URL: www.sail-world.com/104744